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The path I took with this assignment would have a graphical interpretation not unlike that of a decent novel. There was an OK beginning, with some anticipation of what will happen in the end. There were some instances of rising action, among several instances of falling action and near disgust with, or intimidation by, the novel… where you wouldn’t want to even pick it up. After all of those peaks and valleys was the big climax at the end. I see this reflection as the calming post-climax resolution.
Before my eventual finish of this assessment assignment, I was having feelings and thoughts like: “This would be easier to do in a word processor… I can save that and change it later, too,” “Is this one of those things that’s all new-ish and cool, and people get forced to use it just because it’s new and cool? I hope not, ’cause I hate that,” and “This is just like that book report of The Hobbit I was forced to do in grade eight… I’m not so sure if I’ll finish this assignment either!” How do I feel about it now? I’m not in love with Moodle yet, but I’m more on the positive side of indifference to it. Part of me thinks that this may be because there was a large enough learning curve to get done what I did, plus it’s a ton of work vs. conventional methods I already use! Those things being said, it is kind of like comparing potatoes to rhubarb; they’re both veggies, but they’re in two different classes / categories. After reading a chunk of the Moodle manual, Gibbs and Simpson’s article, Anderson’s “Teaching in an Online Learning Context”, looking at other classmates’ examples, as well as viewing several video tutorials online, I can see more of the benefits of Moodle. It won’t eliminate what I already do in the classroom (especially if I can’t get my school to use/adopt it), but I do think it would be something of substance/value in the courses I teach.
In our course site in Vista, a list of items from George Brown’s “Assessment: a Guide for Lecturers” was given. The list was of assessment plan weaknesses. Whether it be because of my own fault or things out of control, I saw myself in several categories: 3. Inadequate feedback provided to students, 5. No criteria for marking, 6. Students unclear of expectations, 7. Too few opportunities for students to demonstrate what they know, and 8. Insufficient time to evaluate students as often as would be ideal to support learning. Now, these don’t hold true for me all of the time, but I can think of times when they may have been. While going through this exercise (readings and Moodle quiz), using Moodle or something like it seemed like good tools or ways to help to check these things off of my list. Take #’s 3, 7, and 8, for example. By using Moodle, quick and adequate feedback can be given to all students in a different type of opportunity to show me what they know.
When it comes to Gibbs and Simpson’s conditions that support learning, using something like Moodle can satisfy many of them. Take for example, Condition 1: “Sufficient assessed tasks are provided for students to capture sufficient study time”. Moodle saves me time overall, allowing me to fit in enough assessments. Conditions 4 (“Sufficient feedback is provided, both often enough and in enough detail”) and 6 (“The feedback is timely in that it is received by students while it still matters to them and in time for them to pay attention to further learning or receive further assistance”) are also covered. As per Condition 10, students may instantly act upon feedback, while it is still meaningful. Also, as a final (but not the only other) example, feedback being received and attended to (Condition 9) may be extra useful for both students and myself in that it can facilitate a method of assessment like giving a student just feedback at first, then once they do something with it, giving them the grade.
Once I could finally get back into some kind of post-school-year mind frame that work could be done in, I dove in and got my hands all dirty. Unlike with gardening, I didn’t mind. Moodle was easy enough to learn with the support of easily-available resources, and I can see obvious benefits to its use. One of the harder parts of the exercise was creating quality / genuine assessment questions, and how I would approach it (formative vs summative). Although it seems somewhat summative (and it is, I suppose… for the section I did it for), I created it as something formative… do be done after one of the book’s sections of skills, before the final unit assessment. I think it turned out OK, and I hope you agree!
References:
Anderson, T. (2008). Teaching in an online learning context. In: T. Anderson & F. Elloumi (Eds.), Theory and Practice of Online Learning. Edmonton AB: Athabasca University. Accessed online 4 July 2010. http://www.aupress.ca/books/120146/ebook/14_Anderson_2008_Anderson-DeliveryQualitySupport.pdf
Brown, G. (2001). Assessment: a guide for lecturers. LTSN Generic Centre Assessment Series No. 3. Accessed online 4 July 2010. http://www.palatine.ac.uk/files/980.pdf
Gibbs, G. & Simpson, C. (2005). Conditions under which assessment supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1(1), 3-31. Accessed online 4 July 2010. http://www.open.ac.uk/fast/pdfs/Gibbs%20and%20Simpson%202004-05.pdf
